Influence Inquiry Turns Toward House Panel

By DAVID JOHNSTON and JOHN M. BRODER; David Johnston reported from Washington for this article, and John M. Broder from Los Angeles. David D. Kirkpatrick contributed reporting from Washington.

Published: May 12, 2006

Federal investigators are examining the activities of several members of the House Appropriations Committee, including Representative Jerry Lewis, the California Republican and chairman of the panel that wields influence over government spending, government officials said Thursday.

The officials said the inquiry was focused on the often-murky relationships among lobbyists, contractors and committee members, who are able to steer lucrative government contracts to favored vendors virtually free of outside oversight through a process known as earmarking.

The officials, who had been briefed on the investigation, were granted anonymity so that they could speak more candidly about a case that remains under federal investigation. They cautioned that the inquiry was preliminary and had not yet established specific evidence of wrongdoing. The officials declined to identify any other lawmakers under scrutiny.

Mr. Lewis, whose involvement in the inquiry was first reported by The Los Angeles Times on Thursday, issued a denial of any wrongdoing in which he said he had adhered to strict ethical standards in all his decisions on the committee. He said he knew nothing about the inquiry.

The government officials said that investigators had not found records documenting contract awards that might have been influenced by individual lawmakers. Moreover, they said practices that appeared to be improper might prove to be allowable under Congressional procedures.

The investigation is an expansion of the inquiry that began with the guilty plea of Randy Cunningham, a former Republican committee member from California.

Mr. Cunningham pleaded guilty in November and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for accepting at least $2.4 million in cash and gifts in return for helping friends and supporters win military contracts. Prosecutors have said in court filings that one of the contractors who paid bribes to Mr. Cunningham is Brent R. Wilkes, whose document processing company, A.D.C.S., won nearly $100 million in Pentagon contracts in part through the intervention of Mr. Cunningham.

The Appropriations Committee directed the Pentagon to award contracts to A.D.C.S., which stands for Automated Document Conversion Systems, even though the Pentagon did not request funds for the service.

One of Mr. Wilkes's lobbyists in Washington was Bill Lowery, a former congressman from San Diego who is close to Mr. Lewis.

That connection sparked the interest of government investigators, who are looking into Mr. Lowery's relationships with other members of the committee and his advocacy on behalf of dozens of clients with government business, government officials briefed on the case said.

Mr. Lowery did not respond to requests for comment.

A senior Appropriations Committee aide, Jeffrey S. Shockey, left the committee in 1999 to work for Mr. Lowery's lobbying firm and then returned in early 2005, shortly after Mr. Lewis became chairman. According to his financial disclosure statements, Mr. Shockey received a $600,000 severance payment from the firm in 2005. The disclosure form shows that Mr. Shockey earned more than $1.5 million as a lobbyist in 2004.

''This is probably the most perfect story of the revolving door that exists in Washington,'' said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group that tracks government spending. He noted that Mr. Shockey's wife, Alexandra, was listed on disclosure forms as a consultant to Mr. Lowery's lobbying firm.

Mr. Shockey declined to comment.

A lawyer for Mr. Wilkes, Nancy Luque, said he had not been questioned with regard to the Appropriations inquiry, although he remained under scrutiny for his ties to Mr. Cunningham. Ms. Luque suggested that Mr. Lowery, who served in Congress alongside Mr. Lewis for a dozen years, told Mr. Wilkes that hiring his lobbying firm was the best way to ensure favorable treatment by the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. Wilkes's company paid Mr. Lowery's firm $160,000 from 1998 to 2004. The relationship was ended in mid-2005 after the Cunningham investigation became public.